African-Americans In Saginaw Prior to 1900

Written by Sherrill Smith, Public Libraries of Saginaw in Saginaw, Michigan
March 2001

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African-Americans came to Saginaw as early as the 1850's. The Michigan Manual of Freedman's Progress identifies J. J. Richards as an African-American living in the area as early as 1855. Out of a total of 4,663 residents of Saginaw and East Saginaw, the 1860 federal census identifies 37 as black or mulatto residents. Most of these individuals had come to the Saginaw area as freedmen from Canada or other northern states, while the majority of American Blacks were still in slavery. During the 1860's and 1870's, the African-American community grew slowly, fueled by the jobs that were available in the lumbering industry. Other African-Americans were employed as barbers, waiters, cooks, plasterers, milliners, carpenters, farmers or teachers. William Q. Atwood, a freed slave who became one of the wealthiest men in Saginaw in the late 1800's, first visited Saginaw in 1857 and moved here in 1863. He owned and operated the Atwood Sawmill from 1874-188 and had many other business interests. The Goodridge Brothers also came to Saginaw during this period and set up a photography business that continued until the death of Wallace Goodridge in 1922. Dr. Charles W. Ellis became Saginaw's first African-American physician in 1889. When he died in 1908 at the age of 45, he was one of Saginaw's most respected physicians with an extensive practice.

By the 1870 census there were 270 Saginaw and East Saginaw citizens of African-American descent. The church provided a center for the African-American community. Bethel African American Episcopal Church, the first African-American church in the area, was founded in 1867. The Zion Baptist Church was founded in April 1868. Zion Baptist Church moved to its current location in 1870, and is now the oldest Black Saginaw church continually operating at its original site. The churches promoted many activities to sustain the educational and social life of the community. In 1870, for example, the Bethel A.M.E. church sponsored a speech by the nationally renowned Sojourner Truth.

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The African-American sense of community was also fostered by the clubs and organizations that they formed. Newspaper accounts talk about African-American celebrations of holidays and Emancipation Day. They also discuss some of the clubs and organizations founded by African-Americans such as the Colored Debating Society, founded in 1866, and the Colored Amateur Dramatic Society Association that was founded in the early 1870's.

In the 1880's, the African-American population continued to increase. Coal mining was beginning to grow as an industry in Saginaw, and miners were recruited from the southern states. Miners found better wages and working conditions in the Michigan mines, which were relatively dry. Recruiters were instructed to recruit family men, who would move their families to the Saginaw area. Two prominent Saginaw families, the Porterfield family and the Browne family, came to Saginaw to work in the mines. The mines in Saginaw had an integrated workforce and an integrated union leadership. The migration of mining families to Michigan in the 1880's was a precursor of the continued migration of African-Americans from the South to the North in the 1900's.

African-Americans in Saginaw were subjected to the same prejudice, disrespect, stereotypes and discrimination that was predominant in American society at that time. After the Civil War, the economic opportunities in the rapidly expanding frontier city brought African-American families to Saginaw in hopes of a better life. Saginaw African-American churches and social organizations sustained the small African-American community and provided an outlet for leadership, growth and development.

• Roosevelt Samuel Ruffin, Ph.D. (Author, c. 1978)Black Presence in Saginaw Mich: 1855-1900.
• Saginaw Mosaic: The African Americans (Saginaw School District, 1994) videotape

Click to View These Related Items:

• The Goodridge Brothers (essay)
  
• Adelaide Robinson Graduates from Saginaw High School (image)
  
• William Quincy Atwood (image)
  

Keywords: African American churches  ; Clubs  ; Coal mines and mining  ; Community life  ; Lumbering  ; Goodridge Brothers Photographers  ; African Americans  ; Atwood, William Q.  ; Atwood Sawmill  ; 
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URL: http://www.saginawimages.org/essay.asp?ItemID=HEES0098